


Wooly Bully

by Kayim



Series: Charlie Company (Mag7 AU) [2]
Category: Magnificent Seven (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Vietnam, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-01-01
Updated: 2011-01-01
Packaged: 2017-10-14 07:27:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 762
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/146849
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kayim/pseuds/Kayim
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Private 1st Class John Dunne had been in-country for the grand total of one week, two days and 4 four hours before he managed to screw things up for the first time.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Wooly Bully

**June 18 1968**

Private 1st Class John Dunne had been in-country for the grand total of one week, two days and 4 four hours before he managed to screw things up for the first time.

It had started out as an insane suggestion by another soldier, but JD had latched onto the idea and taken it further. Possibly too far, he finally accepted as he stood in front of Captain Orin Travis.

"Private Dunne," Travis began, a look of disbelief on his face. "Would you care to explain to me why the men of Firebase Destiny have been woken up for the last four mornings to the sounds of 'Wooly Bully'?"

JD hung his head, unable to answer. The truth was that he'd thought it would be fun, might make some people laugh, make their time here a little easier. What he hadn't accounted for was the fact that his 'tweaks' to the tannoy system had caused the volume to reach deafening levels. None of that would have been quite so bad if it had only been once, but something had happened to the system that prevented anyone from resetting it. He'd tried everything he could, but somehow he just couldn't reset it. He'd even gone so far as to pull everything out of the system and reinstall it from scratch, but still the song was going every morning.

"Private?"

JD looked up at Travis, his heart sinking further as he saw the look of disappointment on the Captain's face. He knew, without a doubt, that he would be out of Vietnam by the end of the day – probably heading straight into Leavenworth on a charge of causing chaos on base, or something similar. Either way, he needed to find an answer, preferably one that would somehow lessen the charges.

"I thought it would be funny."

Oh yeah, he thought to himself, that's a sure fire way of getting one way ticket on the freedom bird straight into jail.

"You thought it would be funny?" Travis' look of disbelief had morphed into one of complete incredulity.

"Um. Yes. Sir."

Even as he stood there, his freedom and career on the line, JD was still mentally trying to solve the puzzle. It wasn't through any delusions of grandeur, but he couldn't let a challenge beat him, not even now.

Suddenly, as the Captain was about to speak, the answer came to him, as clear as day and twice as obvious.

"Sir, I know what I did wrong. I need to go fix it."

"I was under the impression that no-one on this base was able to turn the music off."

JD nodded, the words jumbling together as he explained in very technical terms what he had missed. Travis looked at him, able to understand less than half of what the young man was saying.

"...so if I can just get back into the control tent I think I can fix the problem."

Intrigued by the enthusiasm and intellect he saw in JD, Travis allowed him to head back to the tent and try to resolve the problem.

Sure enough, less than twenty minutes later, he had rushed back to the command tent and informed Captain Travis that there would be no more Rock 'n' Roll wakeup calls.

"Private Dunne. As I am sure you are aware, you have caused a lot of trouble with this so-called prank of yours. However, on this occasion, I am not going to report you. I believe that your talent can be used for better things than setting up firebase communications. I'm going to request your transfer to my new unit. Charlie Company will be an active infantry unit and you *will* be going out on the frontline. I'm assigning you as the teams RTO, the radio operator. If you can keep your head and use your skills as well out there as you have been doing here, you'll be fine."

JD was stunned. He was convinced that he would be left as a REMF for the duration of his tour and hated the idea of it. To finally be informed that he would be seeing some of the action that he had read so much about was like being told he had won the lottery.

"I'm glad you see you are so happy about the new assignment. Let's see how you feel after a couple of weeks out in the jungle."

JD could barely hear that last comment. He was finally going to be doing what he had been promised when he enlisted. Life felt pretty good.


End file.
